I'm Lovin The Comments

Kings fans can hold their breath. There may be a saviour by the end of the week!



All weekend I have been down in Mackay helping out with junior basketball clinics. I arrive home to blog about the upcoming Australian Boomers/Iran series starting tomorrow night in Perth but I have put that on hold due to the passionate comments I have been receiving over the past few days.

I love that people are taking a keen and passionate interest in the state of the NBL and their team so keep the comments coming.

Below I have posted some of the more opinionated one's and put forth my view, again.

"You're playing the PR game bravely John, but you're only kidding yourself. Sydney is the heart of corporate Australia. It's the proving ground for the advertising dollar. So much of the nation's media is run out of Sydney that if you can't attract attention there, you lack a truly national presence.You talk about `the long run'. Truth is, there likely won't be one. Who will sponsor a competition without a Sydney presence? (And don't give me `what about the Razorbacks?' Most Sydneysiders don't know who they are.)Your obvious delight at the Kings' situation likely comes from being a former Pig ie losing GFs to the Kings, attention etc.Truth is, the league is on its knees. The A-League is about to wipe it out.Kings fan." Spud said.

Spud,
Do I think the NBL needs a Kings type of team in Sydney and the NBL? Absolutely, but it needs to be a well run organisation otherwise the NBL gets the negative attention we are seeing right now. No business needs this type of attention that tarnishes the overall product.

I have no "obvious delight" about what happened to the Kings. They were the team everybody loved to hate. Every league needs a team like this in their competition. It brings people to the game when the Kings are on the road.

As for losing the Grand Final to the Kings, I have never spent a minute thinking about the Kings winning it. Everyday I just think about how we "choked".

"If you think that the league is going to be better off without the Kings (and fingers crossed the Bullets somehow survive) then you are delusional. There are no positives to come out of Sydney losing its license. The only positive is that Johnston is gone, and the NBL could have done that over a year ago but was too incompetent! If anything, the league will lose more talent because of this. Less teams here means more players going O/S. How is that a good thing for the NBL? Or for Aussie bball as a whole unless O/S comps are once again shown on free to air TV? It's not good. Also, today's rosters are not worse than yesteryears'. The Kings team that just got tossed would've served your '98 sixers without breaking a sweat. Not to mention the Tigers team that beat the Kings. The NBL has shot itself in the foot by kicking out Sydney. The league's propularity will only dwindle further unless they take a break to re-tool. And lets hope they get a decent, independent board one of these days." Brickie said.

Brickie,
I'm not disagreeing about losing the players to overseas leagues. This is where the NBL needs to revise some of the stipulations about a team makeup, quickly.

A few ideas off the top of my head are:
1. Scrap the points system.
2. Allow a roster of 12 players (still play 10)..one of these twelve must remain a YAP .

What they cannot do is re rate these players so teams that do not have a full roster can sign some of these players. Teams that already have their roster in place will "spit chips" if this happens.

"I feel you guys that are saying the corporate dollar will take a hit. But if you think any team in the league now (with the possible exception of the Tiges) could have run with the Sixers team JR's talkin bout, you are either too young to remember them or a one eyed Sydney-sider. League is in trouble, yes. Kings staying in the comp ever going to help the situation? Hell no. And BTW, a lot of Sydney people couldn't name one Kings playa. This is not a measure of the Rbacks as much as of the league as a whole." This from Anonymous.

Just to touch on that mighty Adelaide 36ers championship team of 1998. The makeup of talent on that squad was unbelievable and not seen in today's competition.

2 imports (Kevin Brooks and Darnell Mee) with NBA experience. 6 Aussies (Brett Maher, Martin Cattilini, Scott Ninnis, Paul Rees, Mark Davis and myself) that represented their country.

The other two were Rupert Sapwell and Dean Brogan.

Sapwell had a Mars commercial at the age of 16 and Brogan is in a league of his own by winning premierships in two different national sporting competitions (NBL, AFL).

All that aside we played a pretty entertaining style of hoops to boot.

I look forward to replying to more passionate comments.

Current NBL News:
Legends Gaze and Loggins back the NBL.
Rob Beveridge knows junior talent and Aussies are up there.
Goorjian to make more cuts to Boomers squad.
Good game in the NT.
Matt Nielsen is back.
Scouting report on Nathan Jawai and here is another.

NBA News:
As the Lakers are on the brink of elimination Phil Jackson has asked me not to comment on this topic as his players spend too much time on my blog site. I respect Phil and what he is about so I have "No Comment" on the NBA today.

NBA Preview: